Competing against 325 business schools from across North and South America, the UH Mānoa Shidler College of Business CFA undergraduate finance team made the final four at the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) Equity Research Challenge, Americas Region bracket, in New York on April 10.

The UH Shidler team of Billy Wu, Luke Kudray, Jimmy Jones, Miku Konsolas and Wilson Wang was one of 44 schools invited to the New York Americas Region Championships after winning the Hawai‘i CFA Chapter competition last February.

At the Grand Hyatt in New York, the UH Shidler team presented a comprehensive analysis and valuation of HEI (parent company of Hawaiʻi Electric Company and American Savings Bank) to a panel of judges comprised of senior investment professionals.

In the qualifying rounds, the UH Shidler team surpassed schools such as USC, Marquette and Wharton (Executive MBA team) to reach the final four with William & Mary, Illinois Tech and University of Waterloo. In an extremely close competition consisting of a presentation, a written equity report and rigorous Q&A by top Wall Street analysts and portfolio managers that judged the competition, Illinois Tech was selected as the winner of the Americas region.

“Our team gave an exceptional presentation in the final round,” said UH Faculty Team Advisor Ben Bystrom. “They did an outstanding job of representing UH and the CFA Hawaiʻi Chapter. Shidler College of Business is now on a short list of the best business schools worldwide in finance competitions.”

“This is an outstanding achievement for our undergraduate finance students, faculty and members of CFA Hawaiʻi who spent countless hours preparing for this competition,” said Vance Roley, dean of the Shidler College of Business. “The CFA Challenge gives students a unique opportunity to learn from and work with financial professionals in preparing for a career in the financial sector.”

The Shidler team was sponsored by the CFA Hawaiʻi, and guided by Paul Yamashita, CFA and UBS Financial Services Financial Advisor and industry mentor Diana Wehrly, CFA.